Reconsider decision to Automatically Promote Students when school resumes in 2021

The Institute for Education Studies (IFEST) is calling on the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ghana Education Service (GES) to reconsider its decision to automatically promote students to the next level when school resumes next year.

This call comes after the Deputy Minister of Education and the Deputy Director-General for GES indicated this on two separate platforms.

IFEST would want to draw the attention of the MoE and GES to the fact that, the implementation of the new curriculum has not run its full course and therefore, any attempt to push contents meant for a specific level to another level will:

1. Defeat the purpose of the standard-based curriculum

2. Render the new assessment framework redundant

3. Put enormous pressure on teachers and students

IFEST, therefore, calls for a re-adjustment of the academic calendar next year (hopefully Covid-19 would have been brought under control) and have attached a Policy Alert Paper to explain into detail the position taken by the institute.

We hope that a series of consultations would be carried out before a final decision would be taken on this and that the Ministry will avert their minds to empirical studies automatic promotion and the peculiar conditions that we found ourselves in the sector.